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Sunday, August 25, 2013

As I sit here at my laptop thinking about my blog post for this week, I am thinking about Saving Cassie and how my book is now with my editor being picked apart. Working on another WIP doesn't seem to help, reading someone else's book doesn't seem to help, nothing seems to help.

Sending my work off to someone whose job it is to find the mistakes sounds like it should be easy, but it's not. Will she like it? Will she tell me it's complete garbage? Ack!

I was lucky to find an editor willing to do this for free since Saving Cassie is my first novel, but I have to wait longer as she will work on my book in between her paying jobs. Still, I am thankful that she is doing this for free. Here's hoping that I won't have to do a complete rewrite; that would push my hoped-for publication date back too far to think about.

Many thanks to Editor Afloat for agreeing to edit for free, it is appreciated!Good News This Week

I do have some good news for this week - Cover Pub sent me the concept artwork for the custom cover I won. I decided that Invisible will be the lucky recipient of the cover and she is doing an awesome job capturing my vision. I really like two of the concepts so now I have to decide which direction to go.

Hopefully, I will be able to get Saving Cassie published soon so I can concentrate on Invisible.

So much has happened since that borrowed laptop and a little thing called NANOWRIMO. It's hard to believe that it hasn't even been a year since I started on this journey. Sometimes, I feel like a complete fraud when I hear other authors talk about how they've been writing since they were eight. But then I remind myself that I can do it even if I just started on this journey.

Monday, August 19, 2013

I see authors all over Facebook giving away swag - keychains, bookmarks, and other items depicting their latest books. Does this really help their book sales?

As the publication of my first novel, Saving Cassie, looms ever closer I have been wondering if all these items really make a difference. Publishing on my own on a limited budget I am examining all my options. I can see the point of having something for giveaways other than gift cards but is it worth the cost?

Sunday, August 11, 2013

As I type those words in the same sentence, Saving Cassie and release, I can't believe I am going to put it out there for the whole world to see.

Some days I'm confidant that it will sell at least enough copies to cover the cost of the cover. Other days I'm sure it's going to be this huge flop that no one will want to read. I had no idea last November when I started writing on a borrowed laptop that it would go this far. I was writing to see if I could write 50,000 words in a month, not realizing that it would lead to this.

Then, I started reading the story and editing. My best friend read it and liked it. Now I was on my way! Did some more editing and gave copies to my mom, my sister, and another friend. They all told me they liked it also. Wow, I began to think that I might have a book.

First, I thought about going the traditional publishing route. Decided that wasn't for me, with KDP and Smashwords and Createspace I could do it myself. I found a fellow author and sent my book off for another opinion. She really liked the story, giving me some much appreciated feedback.

Now, I have a cover and a Goodreads author page and a tentative publication goal. I see a few people have put it on their "want to read" shelf. Amazing! I had no idea when this started that I would have people waiting to read it.

Now, I am on my way to publishing my first book, with multiple stories in various stages of completion.